It is a company recruiting for a social marketer and who will not accept resumes - only applications via twitter, and who have minimum klout/kred requirements.

Is it goofy? Is it smart?

Disclosure: Enterasys is not a client, nor do I want them to be. I know little about them.

Part of me is mulling over what a resume means. Years ago I stopped sending "resumes" to my clients and am really a stickler about it. I make presentations - a resume is often part of that (never only what I send) and I think "sending resumes" demeans and belittles what we do.

This level of pedantry is similar to how I never place "perms" or "permanent employees" (really what the hell is that about anyway - nothing is permanent, ever) I place "direct-hire" employees or contract, or contract - to - hire" folks. But words matter, folks.

So, the age of electronics data and presentations. The age of social. Do klout/kred scores matter? Is tiwtter a good way to "opt-in"?

C'mon, lets have some coffee and talk. I'll share my thoughts in the thread.

Replies to This Discussion

So they are looking for a celebrity in the tweeting world to do social marketing. Is it me or does it sound like Amway?? You are only as good as the number of friends that you can sell to and have your friends to sell to their friends...

Amway - it does indeed have that feel. I feel it was only a matter of time till certain opportunities were tied back to this type of metric. There was at one time that Twitter /Resume service. I can't recall the name, but I'm sure they love the direction this is heading.

I'm thinking that roles in "social" - whatever that really means - are filled by people who more or less just spend their time pretending to bring value, yet, upon review of an actual resume, would be seen for the farce they are.

But I would guess in some careers you wouldn't really need a resume. Like modeling for example. I wouldn't need to see a resume if I was hiring for a photo shoot. A picture (or two) would do.

I'm not sure what to make of it (nor did I immediately think of Amway, sorry guys). All trends begin with some inflection point-- some "think different" idea/approach that may look absurd when taken out of context, but that makes enough people say "hmmm, maybe I'll try too" until it gathers momentum. That's more of a sociological analysis.

On balance, I'm not completely offended or even surprised by this approach. Early adopters know that being derided by some goes with the territory. I'll keep an open mind and follow this to see how it goes for them.

Of course, if they fall on their faces, I'll be the first to say "told ya!" :-P

It looks like a major stunt to generate A LOT of buzz for this company and the author of the article, who (based on glance at their twitter profile) appears to be promoting a book as well.

As far as evaluating a potential hire's scores from silly sites like Klout and Kred - LAME!

I don't really see a problem, in general, with examining a prospect's overall social media presence and usage, assuming it is pertinent to the job. But this seems to take it to a level of making it about numbers (scores & followers) rather than an objective look at their marketing savvy, content quality and ability to influence "for real."

Thanks for sharing this info. I'm sure the company will get a ton of media attention for this approach.

Thanks also for pointing out a HUGE pet peeve of mine - referring to "perm" or permanent. Yes, words do mean something and there is NO SUCH THING as a permanent job or permanent employee. The fact that HR people and recruiters insist on blasting out stupid written ads and even discussing this with clients/candidates verbally is especially annoying - why don't they know better? Someone, please send them a dictionary.

Chris- you are a glass half full guy which I admire. I think it is silly, but I would be interested in seeing if they do hire off a klout score how well they do in their position.

Christopher Perez said:

I'm not sure what to make of it (nor did I immediately think of Amway, sorry guys). All trends begin with some inflection point-- some "think different" idea/approach that may look absurd when taken out of context, but that makes enough people say "hmmm, maybe I'll try too" until it gathers momentum. That's more of a sociological analysis.

On balance, I'm not completely offended or even surprised by this approach. Early adopters know that being derided by some goes with the territory. I'll keep an open mind and follow this to see how it goes for them.

Of course, if they fall on their faces, I'll be the first to say "told ya!" :-P

Will, I was looking at the big picture and not just the Klout score. If you look at the other stuff they're asking for such as 1000+ followers on Twitter (assuming they're legit), and active blogging experience, etc., it stands to reason that the person would be an influencer on some level, or at least know how the game is played. In fact, someone like that might already be making a living by blogging. So to me, it's a novel approach to recruit that way but it's got some plausible aspects to it.

Re glass half full, I am definitely an early adopter myself on most things, and I consider myself a realistic optimist, so my worldview tends to focus on that which is possible, versus the negatives/barriers. So I'd have to say that shoe fits!

Forget about the klout score stuff for a minute and just focus on the no resume required part. Does anyone agree that for SOME positions you can learn all you need to know about the candidate through just their linkedin and other social profiles?

Chris, I do think that we can divine a tremendous amount about a person through his/her social media presence/persona. But I would not submit a candidate based only on their LI and other social profiles. It would be a disservice to my clients and would not do much to establish my value. As a thought exercise I might be persuaded that via social profiles I could learn 80% of what I needed to know to properly evaluate a candidate. But it's that other 20% that will come back to bite you. The same could be said about relying solely on a resume, IMO.